


Deep in the Cell of My Heart

by stuffnthings9



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-24 23:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/945996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuffnthings9/pseuds/stuffnthings9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stannis can never have nice things. And when he might have a nice thing, someone comes and ruins it for him. </p>
<p>Except this is an AU set in the 1980s because of musical reasons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deep in the Cell of My Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deisegal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deisegal/gifts), [ariel2me](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariel2me/gifts), [dreforall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreforall/gifts).



> This is very much an "Unfortunately, As You Know, People" story.   
> Conceived in the comments of my other story about Stannis, Sea Glass.
> 
> The title is from The Smiths' song 'Asleep'. I wrote it while listening to this. I think they fit together so if you want the full immersive experience, listen to that while you read. 
> 
> Also, I'm sorry if you don't like modern AUs. I tried and I felt it fitting. So yeah.

“I didn’t figure you for a Maiden fan!” 

The words were shouted from just behind his shoulder as he felt a body press against him from behind. Stannis stiffened and glanced over his shoulder, bumping his cheek into the girl’s face. She found him in the crowd and, as everyone was touching everyone else anyway, had decided there was no harm in invading his space. 

It was Jeyne Fletcher. Pretty Jeyne Fletcher. The one with hazel eyes and light brown hair and a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. The one who sat behind him in math class and one row over and one seat up on his right in English and directly in front of him in biology. She smelled like warm sunny grass and vanilla and old books. Jeyne who had gotten a scholarship that allowed her to attend the same private school as he did. Smart, pretty, perfect Jeyne who was nice to everyone and always had a smile for him was behind him, pressing her small soft body into his back. 

Stannis could feel his cheeks go warm and the back of his neck prickle, but Jeyne didn’t move away from him. On the contrary, she wrapped her thin fingers around his wrist. 

“My brother insisted I come,” he replied, uncertain how loudly to speak so as to make himself heard but not to hurt her ears. “They’re not bad.”

He didn’t think they were all that great, either, if he was being honest, but if she was here, clearly Jeyne liked Iron Maiden, so he wasn’t going to say anything against them. Actually, thinking about it, he wasn’t certain what he should say at all. 

Stannis spent the rest of the night grinding his teeth as Jeyne clung to him amongst throngs of people. 

“Are you doing anything?” Jeyne asked, hanging on his arm as they walked out of the venue when the show ended. 

“Going home, I think,” he told her. 

“Oh, right,” she said, letting go of him finally. “Well, I’ll see you Monday, then.”

***

Monday at school, Stannis looked terribly stricken when she came up and casually slung her arm around his hips. He froze, gaping at her, his deep blue eyes wide and teeth audibly grinding. Jeyne smiled apologetically and made a mental note not to touch him again. She couldn’t help but want to, though. She always had wanted to touch him, really, and in the crowd Saturday night, pressed against him for the first time, it really was all she wanted and could think about for the rest of the weekend. He was solid and warm and more muscled than he seemed. 

People never really fawned over Stannis. Partly because he wouldn’t want them to, she was sure, and partly because they all seemed to still be enamored with his brother, Robert. She’d never met nor seen him, even though he was Lord of the Stormlands. He’d been away for the past few years and before getting her scholarship, she’d not moved in the same circles as him, or Stannis, for that matter. 

Stannis had never had a girlfriend that she’d known about; actually, he really didn’t seem to notice anyone other than his friend Davos. Davos had moved to the Stormlands the year they’d started high school together. She heard he was from Flea Bottom in the Crownlands and on a scholarship, same as she. She’d thought that perhaps Stannis was gay, but then Davos had a girlfriend, so maybe he just didn’t fancy anyone at school. 

“Was your weekend good?” she asked, removing her arm from his proximity. 

“It was fine,” he replied. “I’m going to be late for class.”

Stannis rushed away from her down the hall. 

Class wouldn’t start for another five minutes and Jeyne wondered what it was about her that he found so clearly off-putting. 

“That’s just how Stannis is around girls,” Marya told him. If any girl knew Stannis, it was Davos’ girlfriend Marya. “You probably make him nervous.”

“He didn’t seem nervous, though, he just… wanted to get away from me,” Jeyne sighed over her lunch. “Do you think it’s because my family isn’t wealthy?”

“Davos is from Flea Bottom. It’s probably because he thinks you’re pretty and is intimidated by you,” Marya assured her. “Don’t take offense. He’s just Stannis.”

“You think he thinks I’m pretty?”

“Do you like Stannis?” Marya asked incredulously. 

“You won’t tell him, will you?” Jeyne pleaded. 

“No, of course not. But really? Stannis?”

Jeyne had liked Stannis since her first week at school. He was quiet and stern and so different from all the other boys she’d ever known. He wasn’t exceedingly handsome, but he was tall and she just wanted to stare into his deep blue eyes forever. He wasn’t stylish or outlandish in his clothing. He dressed like someone else bought his clothes. Someone who had been a teenager in the 50s. But he never seemed to mind what was in fashion, he just wore what was practical. He had sensible shoes and thick black hair was always kept trim with a sharp part to the right side. He wasn’t pretty, but Jeyne had always thought him beautiful. 

***

Friday after school, Stannis locked himself in his room and listened to glum post-punk. 

***

Friday night, Davos dropped by Jeyne’s house with Marya. 

“There’s a party tonight at Storm’s End,” he said as they stood on the front steps of her house in the cool fall air. “Do you want to come with us?”

“Do you think Stannis will be there?” she asked from the back seat as they drove across town toward the bay area. 

“It’s his house, of course he’ll be there,” Marya laughed. 

“He’ll be around,” Davos told her. 

He was nowhere to be found, though. 

Jeyne tried to casually ask people if they’d seen him, but no one had. 

“Have you met Robert?” someone asked and when she shook her head, introduced her to Lord Baratheon. 

He was as tall as Stannis but larger, muscled with broad shoulders. He gave her a broad smile and a kiss on the cheek. 

“Welcome to Storm’s End!” he said. His voice was loud and deep and he was so very unlike his brother aside from their eyes and the colour of their hair. 

“Do you know where Stannis is?” she asked, and he shrugged. 

“Ned, have you seen Stannis?” he asked a serious looking long faced boy she didn’t know. He shook his head. 

“Maybe we should go look for him together,” Robert suggested, taking her by the hand and leading her away from Ned and the crowd he’d been in the middle of. 

“You’re very pretty, what’s your name?” he asked her, leading her toward the staircase. 

“Jeyne,” she told him somewhat shyly. He was very handsome… and Stannis’ brother, so he did look a bit like Stannis if she squinted. 

“Are you Stannis’ girlfriend?” he asked, heading up the stairs with her. 

“No. Does he have one?” she wondered. “I didn’t think he did…”

Robert grinned at her. “He doesn’t that I know of, but I doubt he’d tell me anyway. I don’t think he likes me much. Doesn’t like anyone much, I don’t think. He never has, really,” Robert told her as he led her around the upstairs to a more secluded wing of the house. 

“Here we are,” he said, stopping outside a closed door. The noise of the party was slightly less here. He pounded on the door and waited a moment for an answer before rattling the doorknob. “Hm. Locked.” Robert tried pounding on the door again and calling Stannis’ name. 

“Well… I’m sorry, but it looks like he’s not going to answer,” Robert shrugged. “What’s a pretty thing like you want with Stannis anyway?”

“I just…” she shrugged back at him. 

“Nothing you can help, is it? I know how that is,” he replied. “Well… if you’re not too picky, my night’s wide open at the moment.” 

Jeyne looked back at Stannis’ door for a moment before nodding at Robert and following him to his bedroom. 

***

When Stannis woke up late Saturday morning, the house was a mess and he could hear Robert fucking some girl down the hall. He rolled his eyes and headed downstairs for breakfast. Downstairs was worse than upstairs and Stannis sighed as he pushed through mess to fix himself cereal. He wasn’t sure where Renly was, but since Robert was home and ‘Lord of Storm’s End’ as he liked reminding Stannis, he supposed it wasn’t his problem to worry about. 

“Little brother,” Robert said, clapping a hand on Stannis’ shoulder and making him jump. For someone so large, Robert could move silently when he wanted. “You’ve met Jeyne. She tells me she’s in your year.”

Stannis turned and froze. There, next to his brother, her brown hair a disheveled mess, wearing only one of his brother’s Iron Maiden shirts, stood Jeyne. Jeyne Fletcher. Pretty, perfect, beautiful Jeyne Fletcher. He looked from her to his brother before suddenly getting to his feet and leaving them alone in the kitchen as he fled Storm’s End, barefoot and shirtless, to walk on the beach of Shipbreaker Bay. 

Of all the people who could have fucked each other, it had to be the two of them. Of course, he couldn’t blame either of them because how was Robert to know he’d had feelings for Jeyne and why would Jeyne have even wanted him in the first place? He was only stern, glum Stannis. The only girls who ever seemed to pay him any attention were ones who wanted something from him. 

***

Robert turned to Jeyne as he heard Stannis slam a door in his wake. 

“I thought you said he wasn’t into you?” Robert asked with a frown. 

“He isn’t…” she replied in confusion. “He looked at me like I was a toad and left without saying anything. I think that sends a pretty clear message.”

“That’s just… just stay away from him, alright?” he told her, rubbing his hand over his face and through his hair. “Ned will take you home when he wakes up, just tell him I said, I have to go.”

He sighed as he looked out across Shipbreaker Bay from the balcony in his room. He could see Stannis sitting alone on the beach. He’d never gotten on with Stannis. To tell the truth, he’d never known how. Stannis’ nature clashed with his own, it always had. Had he known how his brother had felt about the girl… he supposed it would have been different. If someone had only told him, but of course no one would have known because Stannis never opened up to anyone about anything. 

Instead of staying as long as he’d originally planned, Robert went back to The Eyrie that evening with Ned. 

*** 

Stannis and Jeyne avoided each other for weeks. He couldn’t stomach looking at her, and she wasn’t certain why Robert had told her to leave him alone, but she did anyway… until she couldn’t avoid him any longer. 

“Someone’s asking after you,” the butler told him one evening after school. “Shall I tell her you’re coming along?”

“Yes, just a moment,” he said, glancing in the mirror and pushing a bit of hair back into place. He’d been sitting slumped at his desk. 

It was Jeyne. 

“Oh…” she said, sounding embarrassed when she walked in. “I was looking for your brother.”

“Yes, of course,” he sighed. “He’s at The Eyrie for the foreseeable future.”

“The… what?” she asked.

“The Eyrie. It’s the seat of Lord Arryn. In the Vale. Surely you must’ve heard of it?” he asked. “It’s where he lives.”

“Oh… right,” she said, awkwardly looking around the room. “Is there a phone number I can use to reach him?”

“Yes, but I should warn you, there’s a lot of girls, so if you’re expecting – “ he began but was interrupted. 

“No, I – I mean, I’m not. I just… I thought I should tell him… I’m pregnant.”

He stared at a statue behind her. “Right. Well, I’m sure he’ll… do whatever it is he does when these things happen,” he replied absently. 

“These things?” she asked. 

“You’re not the first,” he shrugged. “I’ll have Penrose give you his number. Is that all?”

He couldn’t look at her. Stannis turned to go back to his room when she called out his name, causing him to pause. 

“I was looking for you that night,” she told him. “It was you I wanted.”

He forced himself to continue walking away up the stairs and to his room.


End file.
